Railways plan high-speed passenger train corridors

New Delhi, March 14 (IANS) After high-speed dedicated freight corridors, the Indian Railways have come up with a proposal to have high-speed passenger train corridors. “The railways have decided to develop five high-speed passenger train corridors to enable passengers to cover these busy routes in the shortest possible time,” said a ministry official here Friday.

“One high-speed passenger corridor each will be in the northern, western, southern and eastern region,” Railway minister Lalu Prasad had said recently.

“One corridor will run between Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar, the second will run between Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad and the third corridor will be on the Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijyawada-Chennai route,” said the minister.

The other two corridors will be on “Howrah-Haldia route and Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulum route,” he said.

The project is still at its preliminary stage, the minister admitted, adding: “The railways have decided only to conduct pre-feasibility studies for construction of high speed passenger train corridors”.

The railway ministry has already initiated “the process for inviting global tenders for engaging a consultant for conducting pre-feasibility studies”, Lalu Prasad said, and added: “A decision shall be taken only after these studies are completed and evaluated”.

The idea of high-speed corridors for passenger trains has come from the states, the minister said, explaining: “State governments of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi have expressed their interest in high-speed trains and have agreed ‘in principle’ to participate in any pre-feasibility studies.”